Beyer Calls For More Day-care Inspections

RICHMOND — Before a backdrop of little kids in little chairs on their first day of kindergarten, Lt. Gov. Don Beyer on Tuesday pledged to toughen up regulation of the day-care business.

There was nothing new in Beyer's proposals, which all had been suggested two months ago by a team of legislative investigators that found that hundreds of day-care facilities, many of them in Hampton Roads, have been going without the spot inspections required by state law each year.

But Beyer, the Democratic candidate for governor, used the first day of school for many young students throughout the state to attach himself to an issue that has drawn nearly universal, nonpartisan support from leaders throughout Virginia.

"We've seen an explosion in day-care centers in the last five years here in Virginia," Beyer said at the Richmond Child Development Center, a private day-care provider.

"There is an extraordinary need for affordable, dependable day care that Virginia parents can trust," he said. He added that there are more than 6,000 day-care centers in Virginia, up from less than half that number in 1993.

Like the legislative report issued in mid-July, Beyer proposed:

* Hiring at least nine more state inspectors to make sure all licensed day-care centers are spot-inspected at least twice a year. The cost: about $300,000, according to Beyer.

* Prohibiting felons from providing home day care. Current law prohibits people with records of child abuse or other violent crimes from licensure; Beyer's proposal would extend to all felonies, including drug distribution.

* Submitting all day-care operators and staff to a run through the sex offender registry. Currently, only in-home providers must be checked.

* Requiring staff members of in-home providers to be within sight and sound of all children under 10. Several infant deaths involving high chair and crib accidents, including one case in Hampton Roads, prompted this recommendation, according to the legislative report.

* Consolidating day care regulations into one board. Currently, the state Board of Social Services oversees family day homes - facilities operated out of private homes - while the Child Day Care Council oversees larger licensed day care facilities.

Vernon Holloman, who runs the four Holloman Child Development and Education Centers in Newport News, Hampton, York County and Williamsburg, said he knows of virtually no one in the day-care business who doesn't support the recommendations put forth in the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission's July report - and now supported by Beyer.

Holloman, who also is a member of the governor's Child Day Care Council, said the one proposal that might be controversial would allow all day-care centers to consult a sex-offender registry before hiring potential employees.

The registry is not a list of convicted sex criminals, but one compiled by the state Department of Social Services based on looser standards of evidence than are required in a criminal trial, Holloman said. He added that he has a problem with barring anyone on the list from working in day care when many have merely been accused of a crime - and may very well be innocent.

"Most of the recommendations were noncontroversial, with the exception the central registry," Holloman said. "I think that's going to be highly controversial."

Beyer also took a bit of heat from a spokesman for his Republican opponent, former Attorney General Jim Gilmore, for regurgitating old news.

"Don Beyer doesn't have any new proposals," said Gilmore spokesman Mark Miner. "What he's trying to do is not talk about tax relief." Miner was referring to the issue that has dominated the gubernatorial campaign so far: the two candidates' competing proposals to reduce the burden of the unpopular personal property tax.

Miner said Gilmore has not taken a policy decision on the day-care issue, but added: "If the question is: `Do we want to protect children?' then the answer is most definitely yes."

UNINSPECTED DAY CARES

Lt. Gov. Don Beyer has thrown his support behind a set of recommendations released in a legislative report in July on the regulation of the day-care industry. Most jarring among the report's findings were statistics on the number of day-care facilities not inspected each year. As the following statistics demonstrate, Hampton Roads figured prominently among inspected facilities.

Region Facilities-*

Northern Virginia 292

Hampton Roads 122

Richmond 96

Northern Valley 79

Shenandoah Valley 60

Roanoke 37

Abingdon 36

TOTAL 722

*-Denotes number of day-care facilities not spot-inspected at least twice a year as required by law.